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Six Rivers Conference football will survive
River Ridge stays, conference will maintain its name after modifications to the 2024–25 football-only realignment plan
SRC football
It appears the River Ridge and Potosi/Cassville football rivalry will carry on after all, as well as the name of the conference for football competition. The WIAA amended its original football-only conference realignment plan for the 2024–25 football season last week and kept River Ridge in the the same conference as SRC rivals Potosi/Cassville, Black Hawk/Warren, and Pecatonica/Argyle and changed the league's name back to the Six Rivers instead of the Ridge & Valley.

UPDATED Football-Only  
realignment plan for 2024–25
(schools with 2021 enrollments)

BOLD = changes to original plan

SWC
Platteville..................................461
Richland Center......................452
River Valley..............................398
Dodgeville.................................383
Prairie du Chien......................373
Southwestern/E. Dubuque..323
New Glarus................................323
Lancaster....................................297

SWAL
Parkview/Albany....................374
Belleville....................................284
Darlington.................................272
Cuba City...................................263
Benton/SM/Shullsburg.........243
Mineral Point............................222
Fennimore..................................199
Abundant Life/St. Ambrose..161


SIX RIVERS CONFERENCE
Boscobel.....................................227
Riverdale....................................207
Black Hawk/Warren..............200
Pecatonica/Argyle..................200
Iowa–Grant................................199
River Ridge.................................196
Potosi/Cassville........................182
Wauzeka–Steuben/Seneca...160


SOUTHWEST (8-PLAYER)
Kickapoo/La Farge....................230
Wisconsin Heights....................210
Wonewoc–Center/Weston...187
North Crawford..........................141
De Soto..........................................133
Belmont........................................118
Highland.......................................107
Monticello...................................103

STEVENS POINT — The Conference Realignment Task Force convened last Thursday (Jan. 12) to receive feedback from schools impacted by the modified football-only realignment plans and met Friday to finalize recommendations to advance to the Board of Control.

Platteville, along with River Valley, Dodgeville and River Ridge, were among the 39 schools and 10 conferences that either appealed their placement or provided feedback on the original proposal for football-only realignment, which was released in mid-December at last Thursday’s virtual Task Force meeting.  

 As a result of the information gathered from the hearings, the Conference Realignment Task Force amended a number of the modified plans. The Board of Control will vote on the recommendations at its meeting on Tuesday, March 7. The Board has the options to approve, reject or remand realignment recommendations back to the Task Force. If approved, the modifications will be implemented for the 2024 football season.

Among the changes affecting area schools Dodgeville and River Valley’s appeals to stay in the Southwest Wisconsin Conference were heard. 

They were slated to leave the SWC for the Capitol in the original proposal, but will now remain with Platteville, Lancaster, Prairie du Chien, Richland Center and New Glarus. Unexpectedly Southwestern/East Dubquue (Ill.) was also added to the conference. 

Cambridge and Marshall will no longer be a part of the football-only SWC.

The one-year-old Southwestern co-op voluntarily agreed to leave the Six Rivers for the SWAL, but were bumped up to the SWC in last week’s revisions forming an eight-team football-only SWC, thus eliminating the need for a crossover game with the SWAL. 

The SWAL was also revised into an eight-team football-only conference with Parkview/Albany being moved back to the SWAL with Cuba City, Darlington, Fennimore, Mineral Point, Belleville and Benton/Scales Mound/Shullsburg. Madison Abundant Life Christian/St. Ambrose was added as the eighth team.

River Ridge was moved from the SWAL back to the Six Rivers Conference to make room for the Abundant Life co-op.

Speaking of the Six Rivers Conference, it will retain its conference name and tradition after all.

In the original proposal, the grouping of Boscobel, Iowa–Grant, Riverdale (all SWAL schools for other sports, Ridge and Valley for football last year), Potosi/Cassville, Pecatonica/Argyle (Six Rivers schools) and Wauzeka–Steuben were grouped into a seven-team league with the Ridge & Valley moniker despite having just one true Ridge and Valley school for all other sports.

After moving River Ridge into the conference grouping, the Task Force agreed to the proposal to use the Six Rivers named for the Conference.

Belmont’s eight-player Southwest Conference with De Soto, Highland, Kickapoo/La Farge, Monticello, North Crawford, Wisconsin Heights and Wonewoc–Center/Weston was unchanged. 

The opportunity for schools — which are affected by modified realignment solutions — to provide feedback enhances engagement, communication and transparency in the conference realignment process. Every school that requested a hearing Thursday was afforded time to present new information to the Task Force. Feedback from schools in the same conference assigned designated individuals to represent the views of all schools in the league.

 A complete listing of the configurations of football conferences statewide — including the modified, football-only conference realignment recommendations for 11-player and 8-player football — is available on the Conference Realignment page of the WIAA website (wiaawi.org). 

Original proposals submitted are also available on the WIAA “Conference Realignment” webpage under “Requests and Proposals.” The full conference realignment process and timeline can be found on the WIAA webpage by accessing the “Conference Realignment” option in the “Schools” megamenu.

 The WIAA, as defined by its Constitution, is a voluntary, unincorporated, and nonprofit organization. The membership oversees interscholastic athletic programs for 518 senior high schools and 48 junior high/middle level schools in its membership. For more information, please contact the WIAA office at (715) 344-8580.